Saab - A History in Pictures

You'll note that we have yet to remove Saab from the dropdown menu at the top of the Autoblog home page. Indeed, for a bankrupt company that hasn't built a new car from scratch yet this year, Saab generates a surprising amount of news, however, little of it has been the good kind. Perhaps that will all change today, as this latest report indicates that the company has actually been sold for real this time.

To say that the future of Saab as an automaker remains murky is being charitable at best, but that doesn't mean there isn't a loyal body of customers with real needs. In the wake of the Swedish marque's bankruptcy, U.S. and Canadian Saab drivers were left without a clear supplier of parts and services, but now Saab Automobile Parts AB has stepped in to service North America's estimated 500,000 owners.

Congratulations are in order: Saabs United has raised enough money to buy the last Saab 9-3, what is likely to be the last Saab of any sort ever produced. The group will be installing the car in the Saab Cars Museum on a permanent loan, as well as donating the additional money it raised during its fund drive.

The folks over at Saabs United have been a fixture on the Swedish automobile scene for some time now, cementing themselves as the hub for all manner of Saab news and gossip as the fight to keep the brand alive has ebbed and flowed over the past couple of years. So significant was SU's bond with the automaker that its principle, Steven Wade, had the ear of buyer Victor Muller throughout the General Motors extrication process, and eventually Wade went to work for Saab itself, leaving others to run

Despite the popular saying, history cannot simply repeated. So, when faced with the possibility of losing the entire classic collection of cars that had made up the official Saab museum in Trollhättan after the officials in charge of the automaker's bankruptcy proceedings threatened to break it up, a few organizations stepped up to the plate to keep it together.

They're called uncharted waters, and everyone who has anything to do with Saab is floating in them. It's been a while since a global, decades-old automotive brand went bankrupt and wasn't rescued or provided immediate after-death care by a corporate parent, but that's the case with Saab, and no one's quite sure – not the company itself, nor dealers, nor employees, and certainly not customers – how this plays out.